Absence of DNA and anti-leishmanial antibodies in dogs (Canis familiaris) in Plateau state, Nigeria

Joshua Kamani*, Shimon Harrus, Arin R. Yakubu, Rebecca P. Weka, Henry E. Nnabuife, Emmanuel G. Msheliza, Falmata H. Bwala, Yaarit Nachum-Biala, Gad Baneth

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Dogs are important sentinels for the surveillance of some zoonotic diseases including human leishmaniasis. To obtain information on the role of dogs in the epidemiology of leishmaniasis in Nigeria, 98 sera and 204 DNA samples obtained from dogs were screened for anti-leishmania antibodies and DNA of Leishmania spp. using the enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and PCR, respectively. Initially, three out of the 98 sera samples had ELISA borderline optical density (OD) values and were retested. Two out of the three samples turned out to be negative while one sample gave yet a borderline OD value on a retest. A real time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) targeting the 120-bp fragment of the minicircle kDNA of Leishmania spp. run on DNA extracted from EDTA preserved blood of the borderline positive serum failed to amplify the 120-bp sequence of Leishmania spp. In the second phase of the study, 204 DNA from dog blood samples were subjected to conventional PCR targeting the 300–350 bp of the internal transcribe spacer region 1 (ITS1) of Leishmania spp. None of the samples could be amplified (n = 204, 0%). Our study suggests that L. infantum is not prevalence in Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria and this should be confirmed using a larger sample of local dogs tested using PCR methods in lymphoid tissue samples.

Original languageEnglish
Article number100766
JournalVeterinary Parasitology: Regional Studies and Reports
Volume34
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2022

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier B.V.

Keywords

  • Dogs
  • ELISA
  • Leishmania
  • Nigeria
  • PCR
  • Sentinel

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Absence of DNA and anti-leishmanial antibodies in dogs (Canis familiaris) in Plateau state, Nigeria'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this